


Test Anxiety

by Sally0



Series: Sex Talk and Other Ways to Embarrass Your Intern [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Embarrassed Peter Parker, Fluff, Gen, Iron Dad, Pregnancy Scare, Sex Talk, Spideychelle, The Talk, Tony Stark acting as Peter Parker’s parental figure, discussion of contraceptives, discussion of safe sex, sensible Tony Stark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:34:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21956731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sally0/pseuds/Sally0
Summary: Peter turns back to his holo model but he can’t focus. How can he just sit here working beside his mentor as if nothing’s wrong, as if his mind isn’t about to explode from all the questions running through it, all thewhat ifsandwhat do I dos, too many questions to even keep track of? It’s enough to make him feel like screaming, or bursting. He doesn’t know how long he can keep it all inside.As it turns out, not long at all.Just as Tony lifts his coffee cup to his lips, Peter suddenly blurts out without thinking, “Do you really have to wait a week to take a pregnancy test?”Tony chokes on his coffee.Or: MJ is late and Peter freaks out.
Relationships: Michelle Jones/Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Sex Talk and Other Ways to Embarrass Your Intern [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1532456
Comments: 28
Kudos: 347
Collections: Irondad Fic Exchange 2019





	Test Anxiety

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Slothbeans](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slothbeans/gifts).



> For Slothbeans for the Irondad fic exchange! The prompt I chose was “late puberty/sex talk”, with a special request to include Spideychelle. 
> 
> Big thank you to [Whumphoarder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/whumphoarder/pseuds/whumphoarder) for beta reading!

Peter enters the school cafeteria and scans the crowd for Ned and MJ. Ned waves to him from a table in the far corner, so he heads toward him. MJ should be along any minute. But instead of their usual chatting, Peter knows that the only subject they’ll be discussing is the same one that the seniors at every table are probably discussing, and have been for the past few weeks: SATs.

He’s halfway to Ned when MJ suddenly appears out of nowhere and nudges his shoulder.

“Oh, hey!” He looks at his girlfriend with a smile, but it disappears at the expression on her face. She’s looking very serious, and very stressed.

“We need to talk.”

“I—OK, sure. Now?”

“Now.” She turns and walks back toward the cafeteria entrance, and with a quick, apologetic wave to Ned, Peter follows.

MJ leads him down the hallway and into a lesser-used stairwell where they can talk privately. As soon as the door closes behind them, she turns around and says, with no preface:

“I’m late.”

Peter is confused. “You’re—late?”

“Yep.”

“Late for what?”

MJ fixes him with a flat look. “Seriously?”

Peter stares at her in confusion for a moment longer before it clicks.

“Oh! You mean with the, uh…with your…”

At MJ’s nod of confirmation, Peter suddenly understands the full implication.

“Oh. Oh shit. You’re _late._ So you think you might be…oh my God.” He’s quickly working himself into a panic. This simply can’t be. “I—but—h-how did this happen?”

MJ quirks an eyebrow. “I’m pretty sure you were there, Peter.”

“No, I know,” he says quickly. “I just—we were careful! With the—condom,” (he starts to blush at his own words) “and—I mean, nothing seemed to have gone, y’know, _wrong_ at the time.”

“I know,” concedes MJ. “But it’s not like they’re foolproof. It could’ve gone ‘wrong’ and we just didn’t realize it.”

“Yeah, I guess…” He tries to take a leaf from MJ’s book and put a damper on his rising panic. “How late are you?”

“Almost four days. But I’m never late. So I really don’t think it’s a coincidence.”

“Yeah, but…” Peter wishes there was some hole in her logic, but he really can’t find one. It’s been just about two weeks since they had sex, and if Peter remembers his sex ed correctly, that timing is definitely plausible. “But we only did it one time!” he still can’t help but exclaim.

“Didn’t you pay attention in health class? It only takes one time.”

“I know, but…ugh…OK,” he says, trying to pull himself together. “The only way to really know for sure is a pregnancy test, right? So we’ll buy one after school, and we’ll have our answer by dinnertime.”

Six hours is a long time to wait, but he thinks he should be able to manage through the afternoon.

“No we won’t,” says MJ. “You have to wait until you’re a whole week late before you can take a pregnancy test. I looked it up.”

Peter blanches. “A _week?_ What kind of ridiculous test is that? That’s _three more days!_ How am I supposed to live with that kind of stress, _and_ the SATs?”

“You think _you’re_ stressed?” MJ asks in disbelief, and Peter is horrified to see tears welling up in her eyes.

Suddenly Peter realizes how selfish he’s being. As hard as this whole situation is for him, MJ is certainly bearing the brunt of the stress here. Especially if she really is—his mind can barely think the word—pregnant.

No, he won’t go there just yet. No point getting ahead of himself. First of all, MJ needs his support, so he has to stop losing his head here.

“Hey,” he says as calmly as he can, taking her gently by the shoulders. “It’s gonna be alright, I promise. I’m not going anywhere, no matter what. OK?”

MJ’s eyebrows are knitted and she bites her lip. He’s seen her look scared before, but not like this. “You promise?”

“God, yes. I _swear,”_ he replies, pulling her in for a hug. And he means it, one hundred percent.

MJ hugs him back, and they share a brief kiss.

“We better get to the cafeteria before Ned comes looking for us,” MJ says.

“Right,” Peter agrees, and they start walking. “Why don’t you come hang out at my place after school?” he suggests. “I’ll cancel with Mr. Stark. We can watch a movie or something. You shouldn’t be alone.”

MJ scoffs. “It’s OK, you don’t have to keep an eye on me. I’m fine. I have drama club after school anyway.”

Peter hesitates. “Are you _sure?_ I can go with you, for, y’know, moral support.”

“It’s fine. Really. Besides, we shouldn’t change our routine, or people will ask questions. Go to your internship. I’ll be alright.”

* * *

Peter almost cancels his after-school lab work with Tony anyway, but ultimately decides to go. With MJ at drama club, what’s the point of sitting at home brooding about a question he won’t know the answer to for three days? ( _Three days!)_ At least the work will distract him.

“You feeling OK, kid?” Tony asks after Peter arrives at the lab and they greet each other. “You look a little pale.”

“I’m fine,” Peter replies quickly and heads to his workstation, slightly horrified that Tony is suspicious of him already. He definitely doesn’t want his mentor to know about this. “Just a little stressed. SATs are coming up soon.”

“Oh, that’s right. But you’ve got that stuff down. I know you’ll do great.”

“I hope so.”

The task Tony gives him today is to improve the design for the retractable under-arm flaps on his Spider-Man suit to give them a better glide ratio.

He pulls up a miniature holo model of his suit and inputs parameters into the computer for the simulations he plans to run. Shockingly, despite his preoccupation with his and MJ’s situation, he manages to triple the glide ratio on his first try.

“Wow, check it out, Mr. Stark!”

Tony walks over and looks over Peter’s shoulder at the holo simulation, looking suitably impressed for a few seconds as he takes a sip of his coffee. But then his eyes move to Peter’s computer monitor and he frowns. He points to one of the kinematic equations. “Ah, hate to break it to you kid, but last time I checked, gravity was 9.81 metres per second squared, not 3.81.”

Peter groans when he realizes his stupid mistake. “Oh man, how’d I miss that?”

“Eh, don’t sweat it,” Tony says, returning to his own workstation. “Happens sometimes. One time, when I was working on my mark two suit, I misjudged the thrust power of my boot repulsors by a whole order of magnitude and majestically flung myself into a cement wall. We all have our moments.”

Peter forces out a chuckle at that and turns back to his work, willing himself to concentrate better.

He starts experimenting with different parameters, trying to think back to his physics unit on aerodynamics but coming up short. After a short while of trial and error, his simulation shows an improvement of nine percent. He’s about to call Tony over but decides to double-check his calculations first. Sure enough, he finds another stupid mistake. He corrects it and the simulation’s improvement is reduced to three percent. Hardly worth showing to Tony yet.

He needs to pull himself together. If he keeps making dumb mistakes and showing subpar results like this, Tony will never believe that it’s just the SATs that are bothering him.

SATs…

Oh. Oh shit. His stomach suddenly lurches as he’s hit by a terrible thought.

The SAT…it’s for college. But if MJ turns out to be pregnant, how can they even _go_ to college? 

Suddenly, a series distressing visions swims before his eyes. He imagines himself and MJ taking turns waking up in the middle of the night to tend to a newborn… He sees Ned getting his diploma at his graduation from MIT, while Peter and MJ watch from the audience, a crying baby in their lap…

“Kid? Hey, Pete?” comes Tony’s voice from far away, but Peter doesn’t hear him. What is he going to do? How could he have let this happen? He’s only seventeen. _He’s not ready for this._

“Peter.”

Peter jumps at the feeling of Tony’s hand on his shoulder. He didn’t realize he’d been staring fixedly at his computer monitor, not moving for the past several minutes as his thoughts grew more and more distressed.

Tony’s hands shoot up in a gesture of surrender. “Whoa, hey, just me. Didn’t mean to interrupt your”—he waves a hand vaguely at Peter—“deep, meditative trance, there.” He pulls a stool out from under the workbench and sits beside Peter, nodding to his holo model. “How’s it going?”

“Oh. Um.” Peter looks back at his monitor, trying to remember where he left off. _Right._ “I think I increased the ratio by three percent by changing the angle that the flaps attach to my suit.”

“Let’s take a look.”

Peter resets the simulation and lets it run, but hardly pays attention to it. Part of him feels bad that Tony has no idea why he’s working so ineptly right now. They both know that he should’ve been able to do better than three percent after this much time experimenting, but Tony isn’t saying anything about it. 

God, he can only _imagine_ how disappointed Tony will be in him if he finds out. Tony tried to talk to him about safe sex months ago when he first started dating MJ, but Peter brushed him off. He’d already learned what he needed to know, both in health class and from May; he was sure he knew how to be responsible. And besides, talking to _Iron Man_ about sex would just be embarrassing _._

Turns out he had no idea what the hell he was doing, did he? How could he be so _stupid?_

The simulation completes, and sure enough, it shows a three percent increase in glide ratio.

“Not bad,” Tony says, but Peter knows he’s just being nice. “Drag is definitely down. But consider the shape and surface area, too. Those will make a big difference in lift. Hey,” he adds, eyes brightening. “Maybe later we can get crazy and design you some airfoils for fun.”

Peter tries to force a smile at that. “Yeah, that’d be fun.” He hopes his voice doesn’t sound too strained.

He turns back to his holo model but he can’t focus. How can he just sit here working beside his mentor as if nothing’s wrong, as if his mind isn’t about to explode from all the questions running through it, all the _what ifs_ and _what do I dos_ , too many questions to even keep track of? It’s enough to make him feel like screaming, or bursting. He doesn’t know how long he can keep it all inside.

As it turns out, not long at all.

Just as Tony lifts his coffee cup to his lips, Peter suddenly blurts out without thinking, “Do you really have to wait a week to take a pregnancy test?”

Tony chokes on his coffee.

“Uhh. I mean—” _Shit._ As Tony sputters from the inhaled liquid, Peter scrambles to think of a cover. “No reason! Just out of, uh…curiosity. ’Cause it might—be a question on the SAT?”

Even he can tell how lame he sounds.

So can Tony, apparently. He gives one last cough and clears his throat to get the rest of the coffee out of his windpipe, then slowly pushes his mug away from himself and swivels on his stool to face Peter. He doesn’t even acknowledge Peter’s flimsy cover story, he just regards him expectantly, eyebrows raised.

Peter knows Tony is waiting for him to speak, but he can’t bring himself to say anything. He’s frozen in place, staring fixedly at his hands, wondering if he can will his limbs to unthaw long enough for him to just make a break for the door and never return.

“Pete?” Tony draws out the syllable. “Something you want to tell me?”

Peter takes a breath to speak, but nothing comes out. _God._ Tony is going to _despise_ him. Yes, he and MJ were careful—or at least he _thought_ they were—but why should Tony believe that? He’ll judge Peter so badly. He’ll probably terminate his internship. He might even—

“OK, well, two things,” Tony says calmly, interrupting Peter’s spiraling thoughts. “One, yes, you do have to wait a week. And two, either the SAT has a new ‘human fertility’ section that I didn’t know about, or MJ is late.”

A groan escapes Peter’s lips at the confirmation that Tony has correctly deduced his situation. He doesn’t seem angry, but that can only mean one thing: he’s about to tell Peter how _disappointed_ he is in him. Which is even worse.

This thought is what finally opens the floodgates and spurs Peter to speak. He frantically launches into his own defence, clinging to the wild hope that he can convince his mentor not to hate him.

“I—I don’t know how this could have happened, Mr. Stark. I was—we were— _careful,_ I _swear…_ We did all the stuff we were supposed to, I mean at least I _think_ we did…I know teenagers can be stupid about it, but we weren’t, _honestly._ You gotta believe me—”

“Hey, hey, relax, kid,” Tony interrupts, looking a little taken aback. “I believe you.”

“…You do?”

Tony frowns in confusion. “Of course I do. Why would you lie about that?”

“I…” Peter is struggling to catch up to this unexpected turn in the conversation.

“It’s not like I’d disown you for making a bad judgement call. You _do_ know who you’re talking to, right? 'Bad judgement call' used to be like, my middle name.”

“Oh…Yeah. Of course.” Relief floods Peter’s brain and he mentally kicks himself for jumping to such a stupid conclusion about his mentor. Of course Tony wouldn’t do that.

“Besides, I can tell when you’re lying; you’re pretty bad at it,” Tony adds with a wink. “I knew it wasn’t the SAT bothering you today.”

Peter huffs a laugh at that, slowly managing to let go of some of the tension he’s been feeling since lunch. Yes, this situation is incredibly stressful, but Tony’s calmness is helping to ground him a little.

“But getting back on topic,” Tony continues. “How late is MJ?”

“Almost four days.”

Tony tilts his head, considering. “That’s a little unusual, but not so much that you should be getting ahead of yourself just yet. Coincidence seems a lot more likely to me from what you’ve said.”

“But _how_ can it be a coincidence, Mr. Stark? I mean, the timing adds up. It’s been two weeks since—” He stops himself when he realizes what he was about to say. This whole discussion is already straying into embarrassing waters; he doesn’t want to help it along.

Unfortunately Tony doesn’t seem to mind picking up the slack.

“Two weeks since you had sex?” he asks, not fazed in the slightest.

Peter looks away as a blush starts to form on his cheeks. He nods a little.

“Well, I wouldn’t put too much stock in that,” says Tony. “Trying to judge based on the date is notoriously unreliable. And you did say you were careful, right?”

“Yeah, but…it really doesn’t _feel_ like just a coincidence.”

“Forget about how it feels for a minute. Let’s look at it scientifically. That’s what you’re good at, right?”

“I guess?”

“Alright, so first thing: did you use a condom?”

“Ugh…” Peter groans at the bluntness of the question and ducks his head. “Mr. Stark…”

“Hey, it’s an important question,” counters Tony. “Would you prefer if I spoke in euphemisms instead? What do you kids call condoms these days?”

His lip twitches from a suppressed smile, and it’s enough to make Peter smile back a little in spite of himself. Tony is right, it’s probably better to just say it. It still doesn’t make this discussion much easier, but he forces himself to answer. “Yeah, I used a—condom.”

“And are you sure it didn’t break?”

“I mean, I don’t _think_ it did?” He shrugs. “I wasn’t, like, _inspecting_ it or anything, but I didn’t notice anything wrong…”

“Did you check that it wasn’t expired?” Tony goes on. “That optimistic condom that guys keep in their wallet has to be swapped out once in a while, you know.”

Peter stifles another groan as the blush returns to his cheeks. Yep, talking to Iron Man about sex is definitely as embarrassing as he thought it would be. “No, it was from a new box,” he manages, his voice a little higher than normal.

“Did you do the thing where you pinch the air out of it before you put it on?”

“Oh my _God.”_ Peter drops his forehead to the table and brings up his arms to cover his face, uttering a muffled sound that's not really a word.

Tony nudges his arm. “What’s that? Can’t hear ya.” Peter can hear the amusement in his voice.

“Ergh, fine.” He sits up. “Yes, I did, OK?”

Tony shrugs. “Then it sounds like you did everything right. If you put it on properly, it wasn’t expired, and you didn’t notice it break, then it almost certainly didn’t break. MJ is probably late for a different reason.”

“Like what?”

“Oh, there are lots of possibilities. But stress is a big one. Most people don’t realize how badly it can mess with you physically, but I can tell you firsthand that it does.”

He doesn’t look like he wants to elaborate on that, but Peter is well aware from following Avengers news his whole life that Tony used to have an extremely stressful life, both professional and personal. He still does these days sometimes, though he and Pepper have taken measures to settle down a little. 

“And SATs are what, a week and a half away?” Tony continues.

“Yeah, that’s true…” Now that Peter thinks of it, MJ did mention last week how stressed out she was about the exam. “Her parents _really_ want her to get into MIT. Well, and so does she.”

Tony huffs a laugh. “I remember _that_ feeling. So, between that, academic decathlon, regular schoolwork, and putting up with you…” he gives a lopsided smile that tells Peter he’s teasing, “I wouldn’t be surprised if that was it.”

Peter lets out a long breath. It really does sound plausible, the way Tony has explained it. But still…

“But that might not be it,” he can’t help but say.

“That’s right, it might not be, kiddo,” Tony replies gently. “From what you’ve told me, the odds are seriously low, but I know that isn’t gonna stop you from worrying about it until you know for sure. But you do know that whatever happens, it’s not the end of the world, right? Not even close.”

“I…guess not, I don’t know,” says Peter noncommittally. 

“Well, I do know.” replies Tony. “No matter what, you’ve both always got support. From each other, from May. Definitely from me.”

A lump forms in Peter’s throat at the total conviction in Tony’s voice. He looks at his mentor, feeling a rush of gratitude for him.

“Thanks, Mr. Stark,” he whispers.

Tony gives him an affectionate pat on the back. “Don’t mention it.”

They’re silent for a moment, and then Tony changes the subject. “So hey. How about we call it a night here and order some Indian from that place on 39th?”

Peter perks up. “The one with the cheese naan?”

“Obviously.”

But just before they stand up, Peter’s phone buzzes with a text message. It’s from MJ.

 **_MJ:_ ** _I got it._

Peter frowns, confused, and texts back: _Got what?_

 **_MJ:_ ** _My period, duh._

“Oh my God!” he exclaims, nearly falling off his stool in relief. "It's MJ. False alarm!"

“Aha, see? What’d I tell ya?” says Tony.

Peter texts MJ back: _Thank god. When?_

 **_MJ:_ ** _About an hour ago_

Peter’s jaw drops. An _hour_? 

He replies: _You couldn’t have told me an hour ago???_

 **_MJ:_ ** _I had drama club._

“Ugh,” says Peter aloud, but decides not to give her a hard time about it. Instead, he replies: _Wanna celebrate? I just finished my lab work. We could get pizza._

He knows Tony will understand if he cancels on their Indian takeout tonight.

 **_MJ:_ ** _Can’t. My parents just texted that they invited my grandma over for supper. They want me there_ 🙄

 _OK,_ replies Peter. _See you at school tomorrow. Love you!_

 **_MJ:_ ** _Love you too_

Peter smiles down at her message, then suddenly thinks of one more thing to say: _I would have supported you no matter what._

 **_MJ:_ ** _I know_ <3

He puts his phone away and looks up. Tony has gone back to his workstation to tidy it up a little and save his progress, giving Peter some privacy to text. Peter saves his own work and packs up his bag. He follows Tony up to the penthouse, feeling a hell of a lot lighter as he walks out the lab door than he did coming in.

An hour and a half later, they’re both sprawled on the couch watching an episode of _Stranger Things,_ an assortment of empty Indian food containers littering the coffee table in front of them.

“Y’know,” says Peter, a little groggily in his post-feast stupor, “I think I do want to be a dad someday.”

Tony looks at him and quirks an eyebrow in surprise. “Don’t tell me you’re disappointed, kid.”

“No, no, not at all,” Peter clarifies. “I know I’m not remotely ready yet. But…” He shrugs. “Someday.”

**Author's Note:**

> [Come hang out on Tumblr](https://sallyidss.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
